Everyone clapped.
For the first time in 12 years, my heart felt full.
Everything felt perfect.
Then, while Walter was across the room, a young woman I didn’t recognize walked straight toward me.
She couldn’t have been more than 30.
A young woman I didn’t recognize walked straight toward me.
Her eyes fixed on mine as if she’d been searching for me.
She stopped close enough that only I could hear.
“Debbie?”
“Yes?”
She glanced over her shoulder at Walter, then back at me.
“He’s not who you think he is.”
My heart raced.
“What?”
She glanced over her shoulder at Walter.
Before I could say anything else, she slipped a folded note into my hand. The words haunted me:
“Go to this address tomorrow at 5 p.m., please.”
Below was an address. Nothing else.
“Wait, who are you? What are you talking about?”
But she was already walking away.
She turned back once at the door and nodded at me. Then she was gone.
I stood there, frozen.
Below was an address.
I looked up at Walter across the room. He was laughing with my son. Looking so happy. So innocent.
Was I about to lose everything I’d just found?
I couldn’t focus for the rest of the reception.
I smiled, laughed, and cut the cake.
But inside, I was terrified.
What was Walter hiding? Who was that woman?
Had I made a terrible mistake?
I was terrified.
I excused myself and went to the bathroom.
“You need to know the truth,” I whispered to my reflection.
Whatever it was, I couldn’t ignore it. I’d spent 12 years running from life. I wasn’t going to run anymore.
I made a decision right then.
I would go to that address and face whatever was waiting for me.
Even if it broke my heart.
I’d spent 12 years running from life.
***
That night, lying in bed beside Walter, I couldn’t sleep.
I kept thinking about the note.
What if he wasn’t who I thought he was? What if this whole thing had been a lie?
I’d just started to be happy again. I’d just started to feel alive.
What if I were about to lose it all?
The next day, I lied to Walter.
“I’m going to the library. Just need to return some books.”
What if he wasn’t who I thought he was?
He smiled and kissed my forehead. “Don’t be gone too long. I’ll miss you.”
“I won’t.”
I got in my car and sat there for a moment, gripping the steering wheel. Part of me wanted to tear up the note and forget about it. But I couldn’t. I’d made a choice to face life head-on. That meant facing the truth, whatever it was.
I drove to the address on the note.
I’d made a choice to face life head-on.
What was I going to find?
Some terrible truth that would destroy everything?
At my age, love felt borrowed. Like it could be taken away at any moment.
I had just learned how to be happy again. I didn’t know if I could survive another goodbye.
